Should Gukesh rue the missed chance to win title or take heart that he beat Carlsen and Arjun in classical chess in Norway?

Indian Express

07-06-2025

After two weeks of pulling rabbits out of the hat and grinding his way to wins even when he was in worse positions from the start of games, there were no more rabbits left to be found for Gukesh Dommaraju. The 19-year-old world champion had started the final round of the Norway Chess tournament with a realistic chance of winning the title, starting just 0.5 points behind leader Magnus Carlsen. But he ended the tournament in third spot, after losing the round 10 game to USA's Fabiano Caruana, who pipped him to second spot in the standings, behind title winner Magnus Carlsen. It was a gripping end to a tournament that had been billed as the first Carlsen vs Gukesh clash in classical chess since the Indian teenager's coronation as world champion.
In what was one of the most dramatic days of chess this year, Gukesh's final game against Caruana was a perfect highlight reel of his whole tournament in Stavanger: he started off worse than his opponent, then through sheer tenacity found some incredible resources to gain an edge, and then found himself in the clutches of time trouble.
While he ended third in the standings, the event saw Gukesh beat Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi for the first time in classical chess. The win over Carlsen was sweeter for more reasons than one: after defeating the world champion from India, Carlsen had posted 'You come for the king, you better not miss' — a line from HBO's popular series The Wire. Gukesh's second, Grzegorz Gajewski, had also told Indian media: 'As a world champion, he keeps facing these comments that, 'ok, you're the world champion only because Magnus didn't play. You know, you try not to hear those comments. But then you lose to him, and then you lose to him again, and that's not a bit pleasant.'
Those first-ever wins over Carlsen and Arjun notwithstanding, Gukesh will be smarting. This is, after all, the second classical tournament since he became world champion in December last year — the first being the Tata Steel tournament at the start of the year in Wijk aan Zee — where he has been within touching distance of winning the title coming into the final round and then letting it slip.
Gukesh's desperation to beat Caruana and win the title was apparent early on. He started to take risks in the game on Friday from as early as move 4 — playing 4.h6, to signal his intent to fight for the title. Caruana, who also had a chance to win the title, was not about to be left behind. Right after Gukesh castled long, the American's b pawn marched down the board (14…b4) towards the black king. By the 17th move, Gukesh had 30 minutes lesser on his clock compared to the American. Caruana also had an edge in the game as per the eval bar.
At multiple times at this event Gukesh has been in trouble due to the time control used at this event — two hours with no increments and then 10 seconds added from move 41. By the 34th move from both players, the American had surged ahead as per the eval bar. At this stage, Gukesh had an additional pawn and a rook while the American had a knight and a bishop still on the battlefield.
Carlsen, meanwhile, was struggling on the adjoining board against Arjun. A win for Arjun against the Norwegian would have meant that Gukesh could win the title with just a draw in the classical portion against Caruana. Gukesh was under massive time trouble by the 45th move, his time having trickled down to 15 seconds. That's when he got a lifeline as Caruana blundered with 47.f4. This left Gukesh's pawn on the d file to make a run to promote to a queen.
When Gukesh played 48… d1=Q, it turned out to be one of the most significant moments of Norway Chess 2025. Because, that was a Championship-surrendering blunder as Caruana had a one-two knockout punch ready: he captured Gukesh's original queen on the next move with a bishop, giving a discovered check on Gukesh's king. When Gukesh moved the king out of safety, Caruana took all of seven seconds to hop his knight to c3 which forked the Indian's rook and recently-promoted queen.
As soon as Gukesh saw that haymaker of a move, he plunged his face in his hands, unable to believe what he had just done. He resigned soon enough, and then covered his face with a hand for a long time.
On the other board, Carlsen, realising that Caruana was going to win, played out a draw, which was enough for his seventh title in 13 years.
Gukesh looked devastated as he walked out of the playing hall. Carlsen, meanwhile, went on to lose to Arjun in the Armageddon. He was on broadcast studios talking about the 'pain of chess' — a reference to his own fist-smashing meltdown after throwing away a winning position against Gukesh in round 6. But the Norwegian might as well have been talking about the teenage boy from India and what he was feeling at that moment.
Carlsen did have kind things to say about the two Indians in the fray.
'I think the kids are on track. But they're not way ahead of schedule,' Carlsen said on the Norway Chess broadcast. The world no 1 then said that looking at Gukesh play at the event, he was reminded of himself back in 2008 or 2009 when he was just breaking through.
'It wasn't always so pretty,' Carlsen added before explaining how at Linares 2008, there was Viswanathan Anand who was cruising in first place while he was 'playing crazy games every which way'.
Gukesh might not have been in the mood to look at his glass and think of it as half full, but Carlsen had a hint of positivity to offer for the Indian teenager.
'You can see in certain games or in parts of the game that Gukesh and Arjun are far behind myself, Fabiano and Hikaru Nakamura. But we're also the very best players in the world. They're not supposed to be our equals in every part of the game. The fact that Gukesh can actually fight for tournament victory despite having so many bad positions, like he will probably not be happy with himself. But it is encouraging. It's typical. That's what kids do.'
(The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess)
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More